YouTube Lets Users Build Custom Feeds with Gemini AI — SkimNews
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- YouTube launched custom feeds, a Gemini-powered feature where users type a description of their desired video feed into a prompt box; the resulting feed appears as its own pinned tab at the top of the home page.
- Emily Moxley, VP of Product Management for Viewer AI, said the feature addresses the scale of YouTube's library — over 20 billion videos — calling it a way to explore the platform's "treasure trove of topics."
- Custom feeds will sit alongside YouTube's existing main recommendation feed rather than replace it, letting users jump between personalized channels and the default algorithmic feed.
- YouTube will begin rolling out support for multiple custom feeds across web and mobile starting next month, after unveiling them at the Made on YouTube event.
- The move mirrors feed-building tools already shipped by Bluesky (which popularized the idea and added an AI assistant called Attie this year), Meta's Threads, Instagram, X, and Spotify — many also AI-powered.
- YouTube's example use cases include a feed of video podcasts for a 30-minute train commute or "relaxing commentary videos to unwind with."
Why it matters: With 20 billion videos in its corpus, YouTube's main feed can't easily surface every niche interest, so the company is handing curation control directly to viewers via Gemini. The move mirrors what Bluesky pioneered and what X, Threads, Instagram, and Spotify have already adopted — making user-built, prompt-driven feeds table stakes for major platforms.
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